{"id":11705,"date":"2010-10-26T12:18:25","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T19:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=11705"},"modified":"2010-10-26T12:33:19","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T19:33:19","slug":"the-peterson-principle-102610","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=11705","title":{"rendered":"The Peterson Principle 10\/26\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Temple City's Josh Simangunsong (center) has rushed for over 850 yards so far this year<\/p><\/div>\n

Who is this Josh Simangunsong and where did he come from? And did I spell his name right? When Temple City Coach Mike McFarland calls his name you can\u2019t blame him for yelling simply \u201cSimon!\u201d<\/p>\n

Simangunsong, pronounced (Si-mon-gun-song), did not carry the ball last year- not once. The Rams had Max Ruckle, who rushed for over 1000 yards, and Andrew Gibson, who spelled Ruckle, and ran for over 100.<\/p>\n

Oh he caught some passes- four to be exact- for a grand total of 10 yards. But he never carried the ball. He was a cornerback. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But with Ruckle graduated and Gibson moving on to Rosemead, McFarland needed a running back. He looked at his roster, considered his options and turned to Simangunsong.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to play there and we really didn\u2019t have anybody else with any experience,\u201d McFarland said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really know how he would do but he\u2019s our fastest guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move has paid off. Friday night against Rio Hondo League foe La Canada, Simangunsong couldn\u2019t be stopped. He ran by defenders, through tacklers, and over the opposition all night long. By the time the final gun sounded he had racked up 240 yards and three touchdowns. He was the fuel that ignited the Temple City offense. Oh and by the way he also caught a pass out of the backfield for 18 yards to set up a touchdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whenever McFarland, who is in his first year at Temple City, needed a big first down he called on Simon. When he needed to chew up yardage and run clock he called on Simon. In fact on nearly every series he called on Simon. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has speed but also plenty of other intangibles. He\u2019s got great vision, great feet and good acceleration,\u201d McFarland said. \u201cHe\u2019s always moving. He never stops.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Temple City started off slow this season. The Rams lost their first three games including two in which they were blown out. In the Mid-Valley Classic against Arroyo, the Rams\u2019 season opener, Simangunsong was injured on the second series and didn\u2019t get even one carry in a 42-6 loss.<\/p>\n

He got going in the second game against Alhambra rushing for 143 yards but in a 42-14 loss in week three vs. Arcadia he was held to 60 yards on just 10 carries. Since then he has had four straight 100 plus yard games including the 240 yard outburst last week. On the year Simangunsong has rushed for 860 yards and 10 touchdowns. He is averaging 7.34 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

As the Rams get better so does Simangunsong.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has really found his niche. He\u2019s gaining confidence and is confident in his running style,\u201d McFarland said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rams have won three of their last four and more importantly are 2-0 in the Rio Hondo.<\/p>\n

The one game they didn\u2019t win during that span was a heart breaking one point loss to Rosemead. TC was up 28-9 early in the third quarter before the Panthers came back to win 29-28 with just over a minute left.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we didn\u2019t win that game we learned a lot. We didn\u2019t finish against Rosemead. We learned from that and now we are finishing games,\u201d said McFarland.<\/p>\n

Simangunsong has starred for the Rams on Friday nights but you wouldn\u2019t know it from the way he conducts himself during the week. \u00a0<\/p>\n

McFarland has been impressed with the way Simangunsong practices. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t try to stand out and what I mean by that is he doesn\u2019t stand apart from his teammates. He does everything like everybody else does. He has a great work ethic and fits in really well with his teammates,\u201d McFarland said. \u201cHe\u2019s unassuming. There\u2019s no pretentiousness to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week the Rams will face their stiffest test of the year in at Monrovia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere an awful good football team right now but our agenda is the same. We just try to improve every day,\u201d McFarland added.<\/p>\n

As for Simangunsong he\u2019s improving every day as well. And eventually we\u2019ll learn how to pronounce his name.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my principle.<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tspeterson32@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who is this Josh Simangunsong and where did he come from? And did I spell his name right? When Temple City Coach Mike McFarland calls his name you can\u2019t blame him for yelling simply \u201cSimon!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1249,1260,776,559,64],"class_list":["post-11705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-andrew-gibson","tag-josh-simangunsong","tag-max-ruckle","tag-mid-valley-classic","tag-mike-mcfarland"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11705"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11714,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11705\/revisions\/11714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}